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AM Hoch, Affairs of State (Two Heads of State Playing with Their Dicks), pastel on paper, 5.25 x 6.5 inches, 2017

Though I’ve drawn and painted many versions of entwined pairs, I haven’t come close to exhausting my fascination with the visual representation of twisted couples; the grandest or most horrific schemes come down to two people in a room at some point, acting out primal dramas.

affairs of state

Last year I was commissioned to paint something for the EPHESO project — the Euro-Mediterranean editorial projects of the publisher Cisalpino (Milan) — something that might symbolize the complicated relationship between Europe and the Mideast. To get some kind of handle on this daunting subject, I considered this fraught relationship as another form of twisted love. The announcement released by EPHESO read: “…The title [of the commissioned painting] is ‘Troubled Love’. It suggests the idea that the UE and the Mediterranean partners are reciprocally engaged in a troubled love.”

That phrase “troubled love” was suggested to me by Professor Giuseppe Giliberti (University of Urbino), who commissioned the piece. It has many rich associations, but perhaps most notably: “The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, which still we thank as love.” (Shakespeare, Macbeth)